Some unexpected news from the OpenBSD Journal: "The OpenBSD Foundation is happy to announce that Microsoft has made a significant financial donation to the Foundation. This donation is in recognition of the role of the Foundation in supporting the OpenSSH project. This donation makes Microsoft the first Gold level contributor in the OpenBSD Foundation's 2015 fundraising campaign."
[Editor Update] Techrights has a different take on the reasons behind the funding, speculating that:
Windows is known for gaping holes [...] i.e. the very opposite of OpenBSD. For these two entities to work together (NSA resistor and the NSA's number one partner) is to have an incompatible relationship. Nothing on top of Windows can be secured and as we pointed out in our past articles about this, SSH keys will be put at risk. Microsoft's 'help' to OpenBSD reminds us of Microsoft's 'help' to Novell, where the goal was to use Novell to promote Windows, even inside Linux (e.g. Hyper-V).
It's not a payment intended to help OpenSSH development. Microsoft looks to get its money's worth (shareholders' money). So it's about putting secure Free software on an insecure proprietary software platform (with back doors), in order to promote and increase its use.
(Score: 1) by altanar on Friday July 10 2015, @06:19AM
Windows is also known for billions of users and millions of people searching every nook and cranny for vulnerabilities.
Really paranoid about security? Step up and fund the developers of OSS you use. When there are not enough people willing to inspect and work on code because they don't have the financial ability to do so, that software is no better than close-source. "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" only works if there are eyeballs in the first place.
So, no. You're not fostering a more secure ecosystem by hating on OpenBSD because they received funding from MS.